Hearing of the Committee on Rules
"Biennial Budgeting: A Tool for Improving Government Fiscal Management and Oversight"
Speaker of the House
"Mr. Chairman, Mr. Moakley, and Members of the Rules Committee – Thank you for asking me to open your important hearings on biennial budgeting.
"First I would like to commend the Members of this Committee for their diligent service to the House in moving bills to the floor on an almost daily basis. I understand the Committee has strange hours, and you are sometimes tempted to just lock the door, but the House is grateful for your service.
"As the House was concluding the appropriations cycle at the end of last year, you Mr Chairman, along with Chairman Young of Florida, and other Members of this Committee on a bipartisan basis, introduced a resolution calling on the Congress to enact a biennial budget process in the second session of the 106th Congress.
"Mr. Chairman, I commend you for initiating this inquiry and beginning a public dialogue on this subject. The current budget process is broken, and we need to fix it.
"Since I became Speaker last year, I have emphasized the need for Congress to do its job under the Constitution. The public respects us when we get our work done on time and in a credible fashion.
"When I came to Congress, I was not sure if I would ever see a balanced budget in this town. We are fortunate to live now in a time of budget surpluses. These budget surpluses have been created by hard-working Americans, investors, and are also the result of positive legislation enacted by the Congress and the President in recent years. However, despite the positive budget forecasts, we continue to do business under antiquated budget rules and procedures.
"It has become clear that we can't do our jobs with the current cumbersome budget system in place. Every year, the appropriations process consumes a great deal of our time, with numerous and lengthy debates, and often repetitive votes.
"Appropriators are obviously consumed with grinding their bills through committee, the floor, the Senate, and seemingly never-ending conferences with the other body.
"All too often, these conferences in particular are consumed with non-budget, non-appropriations policy issues. This, of course, soaks up the time of congressional leaders, executive branch budget experts, appropriators, and of course, authorizers whose laws these amendments often effect.
"A biennial budget process would free up more time on the calendar for thorough consideration of authorizing measures.
"Under House rules, appropriations bills must conform to authorizing legislation. But all too often, we dispense with those rules because the authorization bills don't get enacted. We need to restore the power and the purpose of the authorizing committees.
"Mr. Chairman, I served on authorizing committees in the House and I have observed first hand the difficulty of moving bills through the House and getting them considered in the Senate. It is frustrating and hard work. I am sure most authorizing chairmen are used to hearing the phrase, "get in line behind the appropriators" when they ask the leadership for floor time in both the House and the Senate.
"If we have a biennial budget process, the authorizing committees won't have to get behind the appropriators anymore.
"The House through its committee system must also do a better job of conducting programmatic oversight and management of the vast accounts of the U.S. government. One of the powers of Congress is the power of the purse, and we need to ensure that we have a system in place, which allows us to carefully scrutinize the programs we fund.
"Programmatic oversight is a critical feature of Congress' funding and lawmaking process. In a bipartisan manner, it allows us to shine the spotlight on how and where the executive branch is spending the money we appropriate.
"Biennial budgeting would give congressional committees the ability to devote more time and resources to programmatic oversight. This must be a thorough and ongoing process, and I have found that it is most successful when conducted in a bipartisan manner.
"Mr. Chairman, another area that a biennial budget process would improve the current system would be in the area of budgeting for emergencies. I am sure many of the Members here remember the catastrophic Mississippi River flood from 1993, and the difficulty of moving the supplemental appropriations for flood relief through the Congress. Other natural disasters occur, and create pressure to move expensive legislation quickly. Unanticipated military operations, such as our intervention in Kosovo last year, also create the need for supplemental appropriations bills during the fiscal year. Biennial budgeting would force the Congress and the President to plan ahead for unanticipated needs.
"Mr. Chairman, the U.S. government should follow the model of 23 states who have a biennial budget cycle.
"The President's budget, just two weeks ago, recommended that the Congress enact biennial budgeting. Your sense of congress resolution in support of biennial budgeting has garnered the support of 244 Members of the House, which spans the ideological spectrum and includes authorizers and appropriators.
"I urge you to use your expertise in the rules and procedures of Congress, work with the House Budget Committee and with the Senate, continue to work in a bipartisan fashion, and produce a biennial budget package for the House to consider.
"Mr Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear before your committee today."
